Comparative international studies of osteoporosis using isotope techniques. Report on the first research co-ordination meeting

摘要

Poor bone health is a major public health problem of worldwide concern. It affects all segments of the population, but is particularly important in older people (and, most of all, in post-menopausal women). In view of the fat that the numbers of older people, both in absolute terms and as a fraction of the total population, are increasing practically everywhere, there is little doubt that poor bone health will become a much more widespread and severe problem in coming decades. Earlier in 1994 the International Atomic Energy Agency (henceforth ''the Agency'') started a 5-year Co-ordinated Research Programme (CRP) based on the recommendations of an Advisory Group Meeting (AGM) held in 1992. This CRP currently addresses on particular measure of bone health -bone mineral density (BMD). The main concept underpinning this CRP is the ideal that a major determinant of bone health in later years is peak bone mass. The objective of the Agency's CRP is to determine the age of peak bone mass in various different study groups and countries, and to investigate how BMD varies with age, sex, ethnicity and geographical origin of the subjects. Information on individual participant's plans for implementation of the CRP, and progress achieved so far on this and related topics, was presented in each country's report. Refs, figs, tabs.